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Twenty apply for top job at RTVS

THE PARLIAMENTARY Committee for Culture and Media has received 20 applications for the job of head of the public-service broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS). RTVS was created on January 1 by the merger of Slovak Radio (SRo) and Slovak Television (STV). The deadline for applications was midnight on January 25; three of the applications arrived after that.

THE PARLIAMENTARY Committee for Culture and Media has received 20 applications for the job of head of the public-service broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS). RTVS was created on January 1 by the merger of Slovak Radio (SRo) and Slovak Television (STV). The deadline for applications was midnight on January 25; three of the applications arrived after that.

Parliament will chose the director-general of the new public-service broadcaster by a simple majority after a public hearing involving the candidates. If none of the candidates is selected, another vote will be held, with only the two candidates with the highest number of votes.

The public hearings for candidates start on February 7 and according to the deputy chairperson of the committee, Magda Vášáryová, a vote could “theoretically” be held on February 11, the SITA newswire reported.

Among the candidates are well-known names such as the acting head of RTVS and former director-general of Slovak Radio, Miloslava Zemková, director-general of the state-owned TASR newswire, Jaroslav Rezník, and a former member of the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission, Peter Abrahám.

The application of advertising executive Fedor Flašík, known for his work on the election campaigns of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and Smer, came as a surprise. Ján Fule, former head of the syndicate of journalists, who later served as the spokesperson of the president, filed his application after the deadline and was ruled out.

Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer, who was behind the creation of RTVS, has not yet expressed any preference for a candidate, but promised to do so after he had read their proposals for RTVS.

“Those people who already worked either in the [licensing] council or in the management of public-service media could be the favourites,” Vášáryová told the Sme daily. There are three such candidates now: Zemková and Rezník, both former Slovak Radio directors, and Abrahám, a long-time member of the licensing council.